Under this "Hancock and Wright" partnership, they owned Kevin's Corner.

However, each of the groups were now in regular courtroom skirmishes that intensified after a court in 2010 ordered Ms Rinehart to give 25% of her "Rhodes Ridge" iron-ore project in Western Australia to the Wright heirs.

Court documents showed contracts signed between Wright and Hancock in the 1980s agreed to give each party 1.25% of coal value royalties if a mine was ever developed on the Queensland site.

If GVK made good on its plan to export 30 million tonnes of heating coal for three decades from Kevin's Corner - and based on a price of A$90 per tonne - that percentage would amount to more than $33 million in royalties per year.

In total, it would deliver $1.012 billion to the Wright company by the time the mine was exhausted.

In the Queensland Supreme Court on Monday, these claims were struck out.

It did maintain that the mine was a Hancock interest free of Wright's demand for royalties.

However, Justice Margaret McMurdo would not dismiss the entire case on Monday. She described the dispute as "long-standing and complex".

Wright Prospecting may launch another case, but it will have to rely on new claims.

Both Hancock Prospecting and Wright Prospecting declined to comment on the case.